Three Times Lucky

by Sheila Turnage

Moses, better known as Mo, never knew her mother. Her adoptive father, whom she calls The Colonel, claims to have found her floating down the river in a hurricane. Her mother figure, Miss Lana, runs a cafe in their small, quaint, North Carolina town. Mo and her best friend Dale already consider themselves detectives of a sort--they pride themselves on knowing everyone's business and finding lost pets. But when a man in their neighborhood, a frequent customer of the cafe, gets murdered on the same night Dale "borrows" his boat, they find themselves in a heap of trouble. Really great writing and fun, colorful characters, although the mystery gets a bit convoluted towards the end.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by J. K. Rowling

Just re-read this for the first time since around 1999. Just as awesome as I remembered!

Orbiting Jupiter

by Gary D. Schmidt

It's been a long time since I've found myself wiping tears at the end of a book. Gary D. Schmidt is a genius, and this is a beautiful, sad, haunting story, that as a public educator, I find all too familiar. Sixth grader Jack lives with him mom and dad on a farm in Maine. His parents decide to foster an eighth grader named Joseph. All anyone seems to know about him is that he has a daughter, and that he tried to kill his teacher. Joseph won't speak to Jack. He flinches when anyone tries to touch him, and he cries out in his sleep. The beauty in this story is watching Jack and his family slowly break through Joseph's shell by loving him so much he basically has no choice. It's hard to tell any more of the plot without spoilers. Just read it. It will only take an hour or two, but if it doesn't melt your heart, you might not have one.

Sweet

by Emmy Laybourne

Laurel is nervously excited about getting to go on a celebrity cruise paid for by her wealthy friend's dad. Nervous because it's a cruise designed to promote a new weight-loss product, and because her childhood tv crush is hosting the footage of the trip, Ryan Seacrest-style. The product, Solu, is a sugar substitute touted to bring on rapid weight loss, and it works. Laurel, due to an extreme bout of sea-sickness, doesn't partake. Neither does Tom, her celebrity crush, because he's already in great shape and doesn't want to mess up his process. These two, and the few other cruisers who don't take the product, very quickly see that there's something a little off about Solu, and things take a dark and dramatic turn.

The characters in this book are a little shallow and one-dimensional, but the story is so fun you won't really care. And endings to books like this are hard to do right--this one is total greatness, down to the very last line. Lots of fun!

Scary Stories for Young Foxes

by Christian McKay Heidicker

Just the kind of book I would have devoured as a kid! Is it really scary? Yes, because the life of an animal is dangerous and frightening, and this guy is really, really, good at somehow making the reader feel connected and engaged with a bunch of baby foxes. Glad it got some Newbery love, too. This is the kind of book that makes readers, and I can't wait to share it with students, and read it to my son when he's a little older.

Small Spaces

by Katherine Arden

Truly creepy/scary books are not easy to come by at the middle grade level, but this one definitely gets there. Ollie has just lost her mom--it's just her, her dad, and her books now. She loves books, so when she sees a woman about to throw one into the river, she knows she has to rescue it. The woman is straight up distraught the Ollie has her book, but she's not giving it back. She starts to read it, but hasn't finished it before her class field trip to a farm goes downhill really quickly. Is the book connected to what's happening to Ollie's classmates, and can she save them from a truly bizarre fate?

The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away

by Ronald L. Smith

Simon is really interested in aliens. He's also terrified of aliens. Then on a camping trip with his family, he sees an owl, blacks out, and wakes up with what he believes is an implant in his stomach. When he shares this with his family, they of course don't believe him, and take him to a therapist, who basically gives him a bunch of pills to fix his problems. In between the chapters about Simon, there are chapters of a "novel" that he is writing, which was really hard for me to connect with, and I found myself skimming over. The ending is rushed, and you're left just sort of shocked that the book is over, and that was it. I hate to say it, but what a waste of a beautiful cover.